Divine Intervention
by CrimsonStarbird
Summary: With just one day left to break the curse, there's only one person who can help the Beast find true love in time... Belle/Beast pairing; TWGOK Season 2.
1. In Which A Not-Quite-Fairytale Begins

**A/N: **_Hello all! I'm really going to try and keep this note short this time, honestly! _

_So I've been wanting to do something with Beauty and the Beast for a while, since it's my favourite Disney film, and I just finished watching TWGOK - and I just couldn't resist sticking the two of them together, especially when they seem to overlap so well. It might be a strange crossover combination, but hey, it was great fun to write. It's not an incredibly well-written piece (I wrote half of this while on an aeroplane, and I went on to hand-write the entire thing on holiday), but it's just supposed to be short and fun; a bit of light-hearted relief._

_As I haven't read the manga for TWGOK, this is set somewhere in Season 2 of the anime._

_I don't own Beauty and the Beast, or The World God Only Knows. This is simply the less well-known story of what went on behind the scenes of Belle and the Beast's romance._

_In the absence of any friends who have watched The World God Only Knows, this is dedicated to Ben, Michael, Jacquie and Jamie, who I will forever think of whenever "divine intervention" crops up._

_Well, I think that's all the business out of the way. I enjoyed writing this immensely, so I hope that you enjoy reading it too! Feel free to drop me a review - feedback, especially constructive feedback, is always appreciated!_

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**Divine Intervention**

by CrimsonStarbird

**Part One, In Which A Not-Quite-Fairytale Begins**

The weekend started out like any other.

Keima was out of the classroom and halfway down the road before the bell signalling the end of the school day had even finished ringing, leaving an exasperated Elsie alone in the classroom, her dejected cry of "Kami-nii-sama!" hanging in the empty air.

If anyone in the streets had been listening to Keima as he passed them in a hurry, they might have heard him muttering something to himself that sounded like "Gamesgamesgamesgames-!", but this was Katsuragi Keima, and people tended to pay as much attention to him as he did to them.

Like he did every weekend, Keima threw open the door to his house and marched straight towards his bedroom, pausing only to inform his mother that this was a weekend to be spent gaming, and he wasn't to be disturbed.

That was when the nice, safe pattern of Katsuragi Keima's weekend began to fall apart.

As he walked past his mother, she casually reached out one hand and snagged his collar, stopping him in his tracks with a strangled sound. "Now, now, Keima, don't be so rude," she told him disapprovingly. "You have a guest."

More to satisfy his mother than to fulfil any curiosity he might have felt, Keima turned to see who was sitting at their table – and let out a groan. "Not you again!"

Before his guest could reply, a delighted cry tore through the room: "Haqua!" As full of energy as ever, Elsie bounded in through the door and threw her arms around her old classmate, squealing in happiness.

"Hey, Elsie," the purple-haired demon greeted coolly, carefully detaching herself from Elsie's embrace in time to grab the back of Keima's shirt before he could sidle off into his room.

"Games..." Keima moaned pitifully.

"Not so fast!" Haqua reprimanded him with a grin. "You're not going anywhere. We have a loose soul to catch!"

"Find your own partner, you failure of a demon," Keima muttered darkly.

Elsie interrupted before Haqua got a chance to respond to that. "What do you mean, _we_? Do we get to help you, Haqua?"

"Well, I guess so..."

"Yay! We get to work with Haqua again!" Elsie exclaimed, bouncing up and down, as excitable as ever.

Blushing slightly, Haqua coughed to hide her embarrassment. Checking that Keima's mother was out of earshot, she began to explain, "There was been a development at the castle."

Elsie blinked twice. "What castle?"

"_The _castle."

"Oh, that castle!"

"What castle?" Keima demanded, but Haqua ignored him. He tried in vain to pull away and retreat to the safety of his room, but she had a death-grip on his shirt.

"After ten long years, the loose soul is finally stirring," Haqua continued. "This might be our only chance to capture it, so I've had it assigned to you and Katsuragi. I'll be accompanying you of course, to make sure that you do your job properly."

"No!" Keima protested. "This weekend has been set aside for gaming, and nothing else! I'm not hunting for any more loose souls; that's cost me enough gaming time already!"

Haqua smiled gleefully, tapping the red iron collar around Keima's neck that only he and the two demons could see. "You know what happens if you don't fulfil your contract!" she sang.

Keima glared at her with narrowed eyes, angry as he only ever was when someone came between him and his precious video gaming time. "You haven't caught a single loose soul yet, so how come you're still alive?"

"Shut up!" the demon snapped back, whacking him round the head with her scythe and turning away, folding her arms crossly.

Elsie ran across the room to Keima. "Kami-nii-sama! Are you okay?"

"Your friend is a psychopath," Keima muttered.

"As I was saying," Haqua continued firmly, "We're going to the castle to confront its master. You're going to get the loose soul out of him, and we'll all be rewarded for stopping such a famous and powerful soul."

Keima was about to nod when something Haqua said finally clicked with him. "Wait a minute, you said 'he'? No. No way. I refuse. I won't do it!"

Elsie looked up at Haqua, concern wavering in her honest eyes. After a moment's pause, peals of Haqua's clear laughter rang out through the house. "How about you let me finish?" she giggled. "Stop trying to get out of this, Katsuragi, and I'll explain to you what the situation is."

There was no way out. There never was. With a groan, Keima dragged himself up to one of the chairs, fished his PFP out of his pocket, and began tapping the buttons defiantly. Haqua knew that this was the best she was going to get, and she gave in with a small sigh. Elsie hopped up onto the table and sat there cross-legged, waiting eagerly for her friend to begin her tale.

"Ten years ago, or so the rumours go, a wealthy young prince lived in a castle. He had everything his heart desired, but there was no love in him. One stormy night, an ugly old woman was passing through the forest and she knocked on the door of his castle, begging shelter from the storm in return for a single rose. Repulsed by her haggard appearance, the prince sneered at the gift and turned the old woman away, slamming the door in her face. In that moment, with the emptiness in his heart plain for all to see, a loose soul entered the prince.

"The prince's heart was so empty that the loose soul immediately gained immense power. The man was transformed into a beast; his beautiful castle became a twisted dark place of nightmare and shadow. The prince's curse even spread to his servants, and it is said that they too lost their human forms. Many Spirit Hunters tried to get inside to capture the loose soul, but his hatred was so strong that it formed a barrier around the whole castle, preventing any of us from getting close enough to even speak with the prince."

"So what am I supposed to do about that?" Keima growled, not taking his eyes off the small, blinking screen of his PFP.

Haqua demanded, "Don't you ever listen? I don't know how you put up with him, Elsie," she added, accentuating her words prodding the side of Keima's head. "As I was saying, there's been a development. Not long ago, a young woman went inside the castle, and has yet to come back out. However, since that day, the barrier around the castle has begun to weaken."

"Then the prince is falling in love with her!" Elsie exclaimed, bright eyes shining.

"So what's the problem?" Keima asked.

Haqua frowned. "The loose soul has been inside the prince for far too long already. If it exists in this world for much longer, we won't be able to capture it at all, regardless of whether or not this girl manages to fill the emptiness in his heart."

The light from his PFP screen gleamed off Keima's glasses. "I see."

"In fact, we've calculated that the loose soul will reach full power on the prince's twenty-first birthday – which just happens to be this Sunday."

"What?" Elsie demanded. "That only gives us one day to capture it!"

"Yup!" Haqua grinned. "I have absolute faith that the two of you can do it!"

For the first time, Keima looked up from his game, fixing Haqua with a cold stare. "So, let me get this straight. I have one day to get to the castle, find these people, and get them to fall in love? And I don't get a say in any of this?"

"That sounds about right," Haqua chirped, brushing her long purple hair back casually with her free hand.

"But it's impossible!" Keima protested.

Elsie curled her hands into fists. "You can do it, Kami-nii-sama! I believe in you!"

Keima looked back down at his PFP, idly pressing a button. The dialogue on the screen disappeared to be replaced by an image of a boy and a girl holding hands as they watched the sun set over the ocean, with the word "Fin" scrawled across it in elaborate letters. He sighed. "I guess I have no choice."


	2. In Which The Spirit Hunters Get To Work

**A/N: **_Hello, out there! So Beauty and the Beast has always taken place on an alarmingly-short time scale - and now, here's the reason why. To the credit of Lumiere and Cogsworth, they do do a pretty good job in the film, and Keima's role in this pretty much makes them redundant. This chapter goes out with sincere apologies to them. Anyway, stuff actually starts to happen in this bit (in a sense), so I hope you enjoy it!_

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**Divine Intervention**

by CrimsonStarbird

**Part Two, In Which The Spirit Hunters Get To Work**

Keima did not get the chance to regret his decision.

Haqua and Elsie had whisked him off almost immediately, barely giving him a chance to pack his handhold game consoles and a couple of new releases that he hadn't had the chance to play yet into a rucksack. He hadn't even had the time to get changed out of his school uniform before the two demons had picked him up between the two of them and flown up into the sky.

He had no idea how long they travelled for, only that it was dark by the time the two of them finally set him down in the middle of a gloomy, moonlit forest. A couple of inches of snow covered the ground, while a light dusting of frost turned the bare branches of the trees into skeletal hands, giving the whole scene an ethereal ambience. Keima didn't know if they were still in Japan, or another place entirely. It wasn't that much of a stretch to imagine that the demons had transported him to Hell or some other such place. In fact, it would be just like Haqua to leave out a little detail like that – and it would be just like Elsie not to realize that that was something important she should have told him.

The unmistakable howl of a wolf tore through the serenity of the scene. Elsie looked around anxiously. "It's late..." she pointed out unnecessarily.

"We won't be able to find the castle in this light," Haqua stated. "There should be a village around here somewhere where we can stay, though."

It did not take long for them to stumble across a little town on the outskirts of the forest. There seemed to be some sort of commotion going on in the tavern – something about a mad old man and a beast – so they decided to stay clear of there. Fortunately, a kindly old woman was willing to let them stay in her barn for the night. Haqua thought this would annoy Keima, and she was surprised when he simply sat down cross-legged against a pile of straw and began to play one of his games without a complaint.

The following morning, they set off for the castle. Haqua was able to use her hagoromo to track down the loose soul's location, something simple which caused Elsie to yet again praise her endlessly for her abilities. Nonetheless, as a result of having the second demon with the usual pair, they were very soon stood outside the castle's great iron gates.

Before them, the castle soared up into the sky like an illustration straight out of a children's book of fairytales. Grand spires and turrets reached skyward in their attempt to pierce the heavens, while elegantly-carved gargoyles guarded the battlements with their fierce stares. Keima could see how the place could have been the castle of nightmares that Haqua had described had it have been night once more, but in the bright morning sunlight, with the snow beginning to melt, only its size was intimidating. The building itself had nothing inherently creepy about it.

And yet, as he looked closer, focussing all his attention on the real world in that rarely-seen but devastatingly-analytical manner of his, he began to penetrate the castle's outer beauty. The gardens were not perfectly pristine, as one would expect from a building of such magnificence; the fountains dotted around the grounds, while elaborate and immaculately-sculpted, weren't spraying any water. Most of the curtains hanging at the windows were in tatters, while some even looked like they had been torn on purpose by something with large claws. Where there were no curtains at all, and he could see in through the dirty glass, the tapestries on the walls were in a similar state and dust and cobwebs seemed to reign supreme. Even that small detail told him much about the castle's monstrous inhabitant.

"It's so pretty!" Elsie gasped, staring up at the castle in wonder. "Can we go in, Haqua? Can we?"

More cautiously, the other demon responded, "The barrier should have weakened sufficiently for us to enter by now."

Overeager, Elsie bounded forwards, pushing the rusty iron gate open with a screech. The other two followed at a more cautious pace, Haqua walking at Keima's side. When he cast a half-curious glance at her, she looked away sharply and ran forward to catch up with Elsie.

No one tried to stop the three of them as they walked up to the castle's doors. In fact, they saw no living being at all. Keima was not feeling any more optimistic about the whole venture now than he had at the start, but the two girls seemed to be expecting him to take charge, so he stepped up to the door and knocked.

At first, there was no response. Keima was more than willing to toss in the towel there and then and go home, but just as he was about to declare their mission a failure, the door creaked open. A female voice inquired, "Who's there?"

"Uh..." It didn't look like either of the demons had thought this far ahead. He improvised. "My name is Katsuragi Keima, and these are my friends Elsie and Haqua. We were lost in the forest, and we hoped that-"

A small voice suddenly piped up, "Open the door! I want to see them!"

"Oh, Chip," the voice reprimanded fondly, but the door opened fully. Standing in the entrance hall stood a beautiful young woman dressed in an exquisite pink winter dress that was easily fit for a princess. Her long brown hair was tied in a ponytail with a blue ribbon, and there was a warm rosy tinge to her cheeks. She gave Keima a hesitant smile. "Please, come-" she began, before she was interrupted by Elsie pushing past her and diving to the floor.

"How cute!" the demon exclaimed, while the others looked on in disbelief. "Look!" she instructed happily, spinning round on the floor and holding up in her hands what looked like a small china teacup. "It talks!"

The cup has a face and it blinked up at them brightly. "Hi there!"

"Oh, now you've gone and done it – again!" an irritated voice growled from somewhere off to the side. Stepping into the light was a small pendulum clock again with a face, who appeared to be the one that had spoken. "The master will be very angry!"

"There's no need to be inhospitable, Cogsworth." A talking candelabra joined in the debate. "Not when we have more guests!"

"No! Absolutely not! I forbid it! Get out! Out! We're in enough trouble with the master as it is!"

The girl spoke up, her voice silencing the animated objects immediately. "Let the Beast be angry. There's no reason to keep three good people out in the cold. Come in!"

Keima had been watching the entire exchange open-mouthed, and now Haqua had to prod him in the back with the butt of her scythe to get him moving. He stumbled forwards, and the young woman moved forwards automatically to help him. Embarrassed, he stepped away from her, but she just gave him a smile of friendship. "I'm Belle. It was Katsuragi, wasn't it?" She offered him her hand to shake.

Recovering swiftly, Keima took her hand and raised it to his lips. "Please forgive our intrusion, my lady," he said smoothly.

Belle's cheeks turned scarlet. "Oh, n-no!" she stammered. "I'm not the lady of this castle! Really, I'm just a prisoner here."

Keima bowed. "Nonetheless, I am grateful for your hospitality."

Belle gave him another tentative yet beautiful smile, not noticing the glare that Haqua shot her.

At that moment, just as things were beginning to go well, a raging storm of fangs and fur and claws and blazing angry eyes tore down the corridor towards them. "How dare you come here?" a terrible voice roared, splitting the air with its fury. Far taller than a normal man, the Beast towered over them all in his inhuman rage. Keima swallowed.

Belle jumped to his defence. "There's no reason to be rude to our guests," she told the Beast angrily. "You need to control your temper!"

They all admired her bravery for standing up to the Beast, and, for a moment, he flinched back from her words. Unfortunately, at that moment, Elsie's loose soul detector decided to go off, and its annoying noise blared through the hall. The moment was lost; infuriated, the Beast lashed out and struck Belle's side with his hairy paw, sending her tumbling to the ground with a cry.

Keima moved to her aid but he was too slow, and the Beast grabbed him by the scruff of his neck and lifted him straight off the ground. "I don't entertain guests," the Beast hissed, "Only prisoners!" And with Keima helpless in his grasp, he charged up the stairs and towards the dungeons at the top of the tallest tower of the castle. The sound of Elsie's loose soul detector faded into silence behind them.

The Beast forced open the thick wooden door and threw Keima onto the floor. He lay there for a moment, gasping for air and wincing against the pain.

"And you can stay there!" the Beast snarled, turning to leave.

"...So you're the Beast."

Something about Keima's voice sounded different. Those words alone were enough to stop the mighty Beast in his tracks. "Yes," he growled quietly. "I am. Do you have a problem with that?" he challenged.

"No," Keima said lightly. He stood up casually and pushed his glasses a little further up along his nose. As the Beast continued to watch him warily, he let out a bark of laughter. "How on earth do you expect such a gentle, kind girl to fall in love with you when you are always so angry and violent?"

"How dare you-?" the Beast exploded, pouncing towards Keima.

"See what I mean?" Keima inquired rhetorically, with a dark chuckle. Again, the Beast froze, brought to a halt by Keima's words alone.

He let his raised paw fall to his side, turning away. Anguish clouded his eyes. "I..."

Keima continued, "I've come here to help you."

"Why?"

"What does it matter? I'm here to help."

"You're lying!" snarled the Beast.

Keima considered him with narrowed eyes. The sudden intensity of that gaze held the great Beast transfixed. "Do you want to win Belle's heart or not?"

Again, the Beast looked away, unable to look directly at this strange boy. When he spoke, he seemed almost pitiable. "She'll never see me as anything other than a monster."

Knowing that there was nothing to be afraid of any more, Keima took a step forwards. "You have to control your temper. Show her that you're not a beast on the inside, but a man with the heart to love her."

"How do you know about that?" the Beast demanded, but Keima just returned his gaze as coolly as ever.

"I know lots of things about you. I know that your time as a man is growing short, and that only Belle can save you."

"How...?" The Beast knew that he wouldn't get a straight answer from this intense and powerful man, so he admitted defeat. "Very well. Have it your way. I need Belle to forgive me; to see that I never meant to hurt her. I want to see her smile again. Tell me how to do that, and if it works, I'll... I'll let you out of this dungeon."

"Very well, then," Keima responded severely. "Do you have a library in the castle?"

"Of course."

"Then you should take her there as an apology. Read to her – or, even better, let her read to you. That should work."

Anger crossed the Beast's monstrous face. "What good would that do? She's a woman; women don't like to read!"

Keima's eyes glittered with just as much danger. Here was a man – no, more than a man – who could face off against this inhuman opponent and win their battle of wills. "You said you would try what I suggested."

The Beast snorted in derision. "Then I hope you like this room, as you're going to be seeing a lot more of it!"

"We will see," Keima smiled.


	3. In Which Keima Is Proven Right (Again)

**A/N: **_So it was about this time in typing it up that I realized what the issue was with this fic - in other words, why it wasn't turning out nearly as good as I thought it would when I started. Partly it was due to the fact that I came up with the idea and started writing it on an aeroplane, so I was more than a little bit out of it, and my mind overestimated how good the plan was. But I think the reason for that is that it follows too closely the plot of Beauty and the Beast. It would be a lot better if it deviated more from that plot; added some twists perhaps, or development for the TWGOK characters. (Sorry to spoil it, but there really isn't going to be any of that... The point of this was mostly to give an explanation for a lot of the stuff that happens in BatB, but when it's actually written down on paper, it really doesn't come out as well as I had thought ^^ )._

_Anyway, we all learn from our mistakes! I already have several ideas about how this plot could be improved, so maybe I'll come back to it at some other point and write another version which is more exciting to read. If not, then at least I've learnt something from this and my next crossover fic shall be better because of it! As per usual, further feedback would be appreciated!_

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**Divine Intervention**

by CrimsonStarbird

**Part Three, In Which Keima Is Proven Right (Again)**

The next time the door opened, the Beast only appeared for a split second to chuck Elsie and Haqua bodily into the dungeon with him before disappearing. Harnessing the power of her sparkling purple hagoromo, Haqua was able to stop herself from falling and hover a few inches above the floor – shaking her head at Elsie as she crashed face-first into the cold stones. Keima, sat with his back to one wall and focussing intently on his PFP as usual, didn't even look up.

Haqua began to pace restlessly. "We're running out of time and getting nowhere," she muttered. "I could easily use my hagoromo to unlock the door and get us out of here, but we'd still have to deal with that raging Beast! We're never going to get anywhere with this."

"Speak for yourself," Keima murmured.

"Katsuragi...?"

Before he could explain himself, a little voice piped up cheerfully, "Are you trying to get Belle and the Beast together?"

Haqua and Keima glared at Elsie, who sheepishly lifted up her hands to reveal that she was still holding the talking teacup from earlier. He hopped down onto the floor. "Hi! I'm Chip."

"Hi...?" was the only response that Haqua could manage.

"We're all really hoping they fall in love," Chip continued happily, bouncing around on the floor in a way that reminded them all of Elsie. "There's only twelve hours left to break the spell, you know!"

Elsie chirped, "Yes! We're here to break the spell, right, Kami-nii-sama?"

Keima was watching the animated teacup with interest. "Say, Chip?" he began softly. "Can we could on your help? You, and all of your... friends, in the castle?"

"Sure!" the teacup beamed. "We'd all be glad to help you! We can't wait for the spell to be broken. I want to be human again!"

"Human again?" Elsie repeated, mystified.

Haqua breathed, "I see... so this is the power of a loose soul that has been feeding off doom and despair for ten years. The prince's curse spread not just to his castle, but to all its inhabitants too."

"We have to capture it!" Elsie declared, determination in her voice.

"We will," Keima spoke up. Perhaps he had been inspired by his demon partner's words. "Everything is proceeding as planned."

"As planned?" Haqua practically yelled at him.

Keima grimaced in concession. "Well, with a couple of hitches. Mostly as planned."

In a huff, Haqua stormed off to the other side of the dungeon and resumed her pacing. Keima's attention briskly returned to playing through his game at record speed in an attempt to block out the lively conversation that Elsie and Chip were having about how the magically-animated objects managed to keep the castle running.

Some time later, the door burst open with a thunderous crash and the Beast stormed in. The two demons backed away from him but he headed straight for Keima, seizing the boy from where he sat. A brief moment of panic flared through Keima but his initial guess had been correct, and the Beast simply spun him round in the air in delight.

"You were right! You were absolutely right! She loved the library! She seemed so happy in there while she was reading to me! Tell me what I should do next!"

Keima choked, "You could start by putting me down..."

"Sorry!" the Beast apologized immediately, gently placing the boy back down on the floor. Nothing could destroy his mood right now though, and, with a slightly alarming grin, he demanded, "Come on! Tell me what I must do!"

"Hmm..." Keima began thoughtfully. "We need to trigger an event big enough to change how the game is played... Right! You need to take Belle outside for the rest of the afternoon. Distract her attention! Give us a chance to set things up here in the castle."

The Beast hesitated. "What are you planning?"

Grinning, Keima replied, "Why, a ball, of course!"

There was a pause, filled only by Elsie's eager murmurings about the excitement of attending a proper ball. Keima's gaze was fixed on the Beast's harsh eyes, until the cursed prince submitted once more and looked away. "Have it your way. You were right the first time, so I'll trust you in my castle – for now." Leaving that thought hanging, the Beast wheeled around and stomped out of the dungeon – although his attempt at a dramatic exit was ruined somewhat by the fact that they could all hear him humming cheerfully to himself as he strolled down the stairs.

True to his word, the Beast had left the door to the dungeon unlocked, and they were free to go. After leaving enough time for the Beast to move well away from their part of the castle, Keima led the way cautiously down the stairs.

As they walked, Elsie inquired curiously, "How did you know she would like the library?"

"Oh, that's simple," came Keima's dismissive response. "She's obviously the fantasy heroine-type of girl. They're very common in dating sims based on myths, especially western fairytales."

"Heroine?" Elsie wondered.

"I don't follow," Haqua spoke up from behind the two partners. "What does this have to do with your games?"

Elsie covered her ears as Keima yelled, "Everything! Reality is just a poorly-designed game! The real world is nothing once you understand the perfect world within video games!" His glasses gleamed in the candlelight. "Belle has all the correct parameters for a fairytale heroine. They're independent and strong-willed, and they reject the expected norm for women for their time. So it's only natural that our target is educated and has a love of learning."

Her eyes shining, Elsie praised, "You're amazing, Kami-nii-sama!"

Keima just smiled secretively. "Chip, can you lead us to the ballroom?"

"Sure!" the animated teapot replied. He had previously been sat on Elsie's shoulder, so she set him down on the ground and he bounced off, the rest of the strange party in tow. As they headed past a grimy window, Keima glanced outside – and smiled slyly to see Belle and the Beast engaged in a friendly snowball fight out in the castle grounds. Were it not for the short length of time that they had been given in which to remove the loose soul, he was certain that the Beast's curse would have been lifted just by the two of them. However, the day was already slipping away, and it was his job to make sure that the trigger events kept coming thick and fast. They did not have long to encourage this dear friendship to bloom into fully-fledged love.

The ballroom had once been magnificent, but ten long years of despair had caused it to fall deep into disrepair. The first thing that struck them was just how dark it was in there. The enormous floor-to-ceiling windows were covered in filthy drapes, a desperate attempt to keep the penetrating light out of this place of hopelessness. Cobwebs hung from the once-impressive chandeliers, so thick that the gold was completely enveloped in a cocoon of gloomy grey. A covering of mud and dust hid the floor from view.

Keima took one step inside the room and immediately began coughing. The disturbed dust swirled around him as if it had a life of its own. He hurried backwards and slammed the door shut. While the rest of the castle had been in disrepair but still habitable, all the negative emotions that ruled over the castle had concentrated in that one room, making it a hive of darkness and doom. It looked like Keima had been right – again.

Not that it was obvious to everyone. Haqua demanded, "What were you thinking? That room is completely unusable!"

Elsie jumped up and down excitably. "Pick me!"

Much to Haqua's astonishment, Keima grinned. There were times when having a failure of a Spirit Hunter for a partner came in handy. "Elsie! Chip! Round up all the help you can find in this enchanted castle! You have one hour to make the ballroom as good as new again!"

Saluting, Elsie chirruped, "Right away, Kami-nii-sama!" Chip added his own eager agreement, and the two of them bounced off towards the kitchens in search of help from the castle's odd inhabitants.

Satisfied, Keima sat down with his back to the wall next to the grand doors and took his PFP out of his pocket. Ignoring – or perhaps not even noticing – Haqua's disapproving look, he began to make rapid progress through a dating sim called "Fairytale Castle". There was a game for every occasion.

In the silence that followed, broken only by the rapid tapping of well-used buttons, Haqua hovered around nervously, unsure of what to do. She tapped her foot and swung her scythe back and forth, not knowing what to say now that she was alone with this strange and powerful human being. Just to break the awkward silence, she inquired, "Why a ball? Because it'll create a romantic atmosphere?"

Keima paused, thumb hovering thoughtfully over one of the buttons. With a sigh, he rested the portable game console on his lap. "Partly," he mused. "But we can't lose sight of the fact that we're dealing with not one, but two targets here. We need the Beast to remember that he is a man – and a prince at that – before he can truly fall in love."

"So dancing formally with Belle is supposed to remind him of how he used to be?"

"It's also necessary for any kind of fairytale romance. I challenge you to name me one fantasy-based dating sim where the player doesn't dance with the heroine!"

Haqua just looked blankly down at him, before shrugging dismissively and looking off into the distance. "Whatever."

Keima continued, "And we can't forget out girl. All fantasy-heroine types secretly want to be treated like princesses!" Smiling to himself, Keima pushed his glasses a little further up along his nose in a satisfied manner. "If I'm right, and we carry this out correctly, this one pivotal event should be enough to bring the two of them together."

Haqua looked as if she was about to ask something else when a rising noise coming from down the corridor caught their attention. If she wasn't mistaken, it sounded very much like a herd of stampeding rhinoceroses was heading straight for them. Clouds of dust obscured their view, churned up as if by the hooves of the mighty buffalo as they stormed across the plains. Alarmed, Haqua raised her scythe as Keima continued to play through his game unfazed – only to find that it was Elsie leading the charge, and behind her, instead of a stampede of furious beasts, came a horde of animated furniture. It was truly a remarkable sight. The demon skidded to a stop in front of Keima, beaming proudly with her magical broom held aloft.

"Ready to clean, Kami-nii-sama!"

"I'm counting on you, Elsie," Keima responded smoothly. As eager as ever to do something useful for her partner, she leapt into action straight away, ready to do what she did best: clean. With cheers of encouragement, all the various pieces of animated furniture and household objects followed her into the old and unused ballroom, ready to do anything that might help their master and remove the affliction of the castle.

Only a few seconds later, the storm of noise and colour had disappeared inside the ballroom and the doors swung shut behind them, leaving Haqua and Keima alone in the corridor again. The beautiful purple-haired demon remarked thoughtfully, "So this is how you and Elsie have managed to capture so many loose souls already."

Keima looked up at her with a frown, as if surprised to see her there. "What are you still doing here? Get in there and help clean up!"

Haqua folded her arms, pouting. "Why should I? You're not helping!"

"I'm orchestrating this entire plan," he pointed out. "You're just being useless."

"I'm an honours student! I don't do housework!"

"Do you want some credit for catching this famous loose soul or not?"

Haqua's scythe flashed out, hooking Keima by the back of his collar and lifting him up into the air. "You're so mean!" she complained.

Unimpressed, Keima narrowed his eyes at her. He pointed towards the ballroom. "Clean!" he commanded.

Huffing, Haqua dropped him back to the ground, treating him to a parting whack to the head with her scythe as she disappeared into the ballroom. Absentmindedly rubbing the bruise developing on his head, Keima settled down happily to his game, left in peace at last.

* * *

**A/N: **_I did it, dad. I got "the hooves of the mighty buffalo" in there. I hope you're proud of me..._


	4. In Which The End Is Sighted

**A/N: **_If you can't tell, I really like "The Mob Song". It's probably my favourite song from any Disney movie, and I think it's horrendously underrated. I did write all of this bit from memory - which I think is pretty good since I've only seen Beauty and the Beast about three times in my whole life! (Not counting the stage show at WDW, which I've seen countless times, or the number of times I've listened to the song on its own...) Anyway, that's quite beside the point. I am going to continue to upload this since I've written it all anyway, so I hope you enjoy reading the rest of it!_

* * *

**Divine Intervention**

By CrimsonStarbird

**Part Four, In Which The End Is Sighted**

Between Elsie's magical broom and the fact that much of the house was quite literally cleaning itself, it took no time at all for the workers to make the ballroom look brand new again. Their initial task accomplished, but with no less determination, the workers dispersed without being asked around the rest of the castle in order to make the whole place fit once again for a prince and princess. An hour later, led by an exhausted but pleased Elsie, they all reported back to Keima, eagerly awaiting their next tasks.

Against his better judgement, Keima allowed Elsie to go and help prepare the evening's feast in the castle kitchens, silently grateful that he wouldn't be dining with Belle and the Beast that night. Haqua he sent to act as a handmaiden to Belle to help her get ready for the dance, a task which she didn't complain about. He left the care of the Beast to his enthusiastic furniture-servants, and took up a position of thoughtful vigil on the internal balcony overlooking the glittering golden ballroom below, faithfully resuming the playthrough of his game.

Presently he was joined by the two demons and an assortment of animated objects, including a teapot and the candelabra from earlier, none of which he paid any attention to. Elsie and Haqua were chatting amicably about being part of such a glorious spectacle - even though there were only two people actually taking part, it was still like something out of a period drama.

When Belle emerged, stunning in a wonderful golden dress which shone with all the beauty of the rising sun, the atmosphere became truly magical. The two demons watched in amazement as she and the Beast, dressed as smartly as if he were a normal man, began to dance. Quietly, the animated teapot began to sing a touching song for the two of them, capturing the beauty and romance of the sparkling candlelit scene that the demons and the servants had worked so hard to create.

Elsie nudged Keima where he was leaning against the barrier, in an attempt to get him to look up and notice the magical way that the two of them were smiling at each other, but he didn't seem to be interested. He did look up from his glowing PFP screen at one point, only to frown at the dancing pair. "It's not right," he muttered, turning his attention back to the game and refusing to clarify his statement.

The pair danced until the sky outside was a deep indigo, littered with benevolent, sparkling stars. As the candlelight dimmed, courtesy of the animated candelabra, Belle took the Beast's hand and led him out onto the balcony overlooking the castle grounds, and they sat together underneath the romantic sky. All this meant was that the observers could no longer see or hear what was going on.

Haqua turned to Elsie. "This is it! Get ready to capture the loose soul!"

Elsie nodded in agreement, the determination not to let all their hard work go to waste etched into her innocent face. She summoned a tiny detention jar onto the palm of her hand, then she leapt off the balcony and flew down to hover anxiously just out of sight on the other side of the great glass doors.

Yet, as those overlooking the ballroom watched in expectation, those doors flew open and Belle ran out in an obvious hurry, clutching a small silver object to her chest. It almost looked like she was crying.

"What?" Haqua demanded of no one in particular. Her indignant voice rang out over the entire confused scene. "Elsie! Where's the loose soul?" The demon girl shrugged back, eyes wide.

Now Keima began to take an interest, looking up from his game and actually flipping the power switch to 'off'. "He let her go," he mused. Then, without warning, he began to run down the stairs, his sudden movement causing Haqua to shout out crossly. She flew down to reunite with him and Elsie as they emerged out onto the balcony in the chill winter night.

The Beast stood with his back to the trio, looking out over the castle grounds as a cloaked figure on horseback rode away into the night. Haqua was the first to confront him, grabbing his shoulder fearlessly and dragging him round. He stared at her with bleak dull eyes, that were so very human.

"What on earth have you done?" she yelled at him.

He murmured, "I had to... let her go."

"No! You didn't! Do you not understand how important it is that the two of you fall in love tonight-?"

The Beast roared back, "How could I keep her here when her father is sick in the forest?"

Haqua just shook her head. "But things were going so well... why would you just let her go like that?"

The answer was simple and honest; a quiet confession to the night. "Because I love her."

"W-What?" Haqua took a step back. "How is this possible? If you love her, why is the loose soul still inside you?" A mixture of fear and incomprehension crossed her face as she stepped away from him again.

Quietly, Keima asked of his partner demon, "Elsie, when a loose soul gets this strong, is it possible that filling the emptiness in its host's heart isn't enough to remove it? That it is insufficient just to learn to love another, and he must earn their love in return?"

Elsie nodded vigorously. "I've never chased such a powerful loose soul before, but I think so- Kami-nii-sama!" This became a shout of alarm as over his shoulder she spotted the Beast bounding towards him. Keima turned – but he had never had much in the way of athletic ability, and he was far too slow to avoid the danger.

With an ear-splitting roar of "Get out!", the Beast struck him a forceful blow which sent Keima sailing over the railings and straight towards the ground below. "You should never have come here!"

Haqua and Elsie exchanged glances. Neither of them were about to wait around to be the Beast's next target. They ran at the barrier in unison and vaulted over it, dodging the Beast's flailing blow. Gently, they floated down through the dark night as the Beast's heart-wrenching howl of anguish tore through the chill air.

Keima, who did not have the ability to fly like the demons did, had landed face-first in a flowerbed. That was not about to stop him, though, and he had sprung straight back to his feet and was just brushing the mud from his clothes when the demons landed beside him. Elsie tried to check if her partner was alright, but he just pushed her away. There was a vigour in his step and a light in his eyes which she recognized – this was the intense focus and determination that only ever came to Keima when he was nearing the end of a conquest.

Meanwhile, Haqua had turned her wary gaze towards the silhouette of the monstrous Beast on the balcony, as if concerned that he might pounce down and enforce his command that they leave this place. "I guess that's it, then," she sighed.

She had only meant to speak to herself, but her words carried further than she had intended in the silence, drawing glances from her companions. "What?" she demanded defensively. "What else can we do? Belle has left and we don't know why; the Beast has gone mad – and even though he loved her, it wasn't enough to free the loose soul! Now we're down here, far from either of them, and our time is almost up! There's nothing more that we can do. It's over."

"On the contrary," Keima corrected, with a confident grin. "In fact, I can already see the ending." Without giving either of them a chance to ask, he began to issue commands with the unique kind of authority he possessed that few ever got to see. "We have to find Belle, and give her one last ultimatum. Haqua! Use your hagoromo to track her down. Both of you, take to the skies and find a way through the forest. Hurry! We don't have much time left to end this!"

The two demons followed his instructions without question. From the sky above the forest, and with all her expertise, Haqua was quickly able to locate Belle. She was riding a horse and had a good lead on them, heading towards the village they had passed through on their way to the castle. With the demons blazing a trail through the sky, Keima ran through the snow-smothered forest, a hero of legend on his way to complete one important quest.

By the time they caught up with the runaway heroine, she was already in the centre of the little town, where there appeared to be some sort of commotion going on outside one of the houses. The three of them crept closer, watching from round the corner of a cottage as the scene unfurled before them. A burly man by the name of Gaston seemed to be threatening to take Belle's father away. With narrowed eyes, Keima turned his sharp mind towards analyzing the situation.

"Tell us again, old man!" a short, torch-bearing man gloated. "Just how big _was_ this beast?"

As the old man, presumably Belle's father, tried to describe the Beast with earnest fear in his eyes, mocking laughter rang out from the assembled crowd. It felt to the onlookers as if they had been dropped right into the middle of a much larger story, but as Keima watched, untangling the emotions running high in the crowd like no one else could, all the pieces began to click into place.

Men from the crowd began to drag the old man towards a wagon ominously marked "Asylum for Loons" in blood-red lettering. As Belle began to protest, the three onlookers could just about make out the words that the man called Gaston spoke to Belle in an undertone: "I might be able to clear up this little misunderstanding... If you marry me!"

Elsie exclaimed, "That man is despicable!" She couldn't help giving a little cheer when Belle pushed him away with a defiant cry.

Keima looked at her severely. "He's also our way in."

"I'm not mad!" the old man protested. "There really is a Beast! I'm telling you the truth!"

At that moment, much to the surprise of the demons – let alone the assembled crowd – Keima stepped out of the shadows. "The old man is right!" he declared. "There is a terrible beast living in the castle in the forest!"

"You!" Belle exclaimed.

Gaston pushed her roughly aside, demanding, "Who are you?"

The crowd took a collective step backwards as Elsie and Haqua materialized out of the darkness to stand at Keima's side, neither of them fully comprehending his actions but both nonetheless faithful in their solidarity. Keima's glasses gleamed as he spread his arms wide. His audience was held captive by the inexplicable power that this boy commanded. "I have come from the castle to bring you warning! The Beast is real, a true monster of nightmare!"

He walked amongst the crowd now, as they hung onto every word that the mysterious stranger spoke. "The Beast will make off with your children!" he crowed. "He'll come after them in the night!"

Almost beside herself with madness and grief, Belle yelled up at him, "You know that's not true! He's kind," she pleaded to Gaston; to anyone who would listen. "He's my friend!"

Pausing next to the big man, Keima murmured to him, "Can it be that Belle has feelings for this monster? Did she really choose a beast over you?"

Enraged, Gaston turned to his fellow villagers. "That's right!" he bellowed. "We're not safe until his head is mounted on my wall! I say we kill the Beast!"

"Yeah!"

"Kill him!"

Gaston drew a wicked silver dagger from his belt. "We're not coming home 'til he's dead! Good and dead!"

"Kill the Beast!"

"No!" This was Belle, standing up to Gaston in defiance; the true heroine. "I won't let you do this!"

But Gaston just slapped her away. "If you're not with us, you're against us!" he accused viciously. "We can't have them running off to warn the creature!"

He seized Belle bodily and flung her down through the wooden hatch in the ground into her father's underground workshop. For a moment, through the darkness, she made eye-contact with Keima. Her mouth formed three desperate words: "How could you?" Then her father was pushed in too and the hatch was locked and bolted, and the prisoners' cries for help were drowned out by the rising tension and bloody, feverish excitement in the air.

Mounting his coal-black horse, Gaston yelled, "We'll lay siege to the castle, and bring back his head!"

Torch raised, he galloped off into the forest, and the other villages followed him with a resounding chant of "Kill the Beast!". The mob marched off into the darkness until the gloomy shadows of the forest had swallowed them and their bloodthirsty song - and, just like that, Keima, Elsie and Haqua were left alone in the eerie, echoing silence.


	5. In Which True Love Saves The Day

**A/N: **_So this is the last chapter of this short story. Since I'll probably never write with TWGOK again (I'd be interested in doing more with it, but I have a long list of things to write with far higher priority than this!), a lot of my feelings about the series are pushed into it at the end. I wish they would develop Keima more in the anime... he changes a lot of people, but never seems to be changed himself, which is always slightly disappointing, especially with such an interesting protagonist. Still, it remains an enjoyable series, and I eagerly await Season 3._

_I justified most of this chapter using Belle's bits from the song "Something There" and the reprise of "Belle". I guess I'm pushing it a bit really, though. I don't dislike Belle. She's probably my favourite Disney Princess, just as Beauty and the Beast is my favourite Disney film. So this one goes out with apologies to Belle - I'm sorry for tearing you apart like this!_

_Congratulations for making it this far through the fic, by the way. I've never finished a fanfic before, so I don't really know what else to write, other than I hope you enjoy the final installation of Divine Intervention! Constructive criticism is appreciated, as ever!_

* * *

**Divine Intervention**

By CrimsonStarbird

**Part Five, In Which True Love (With A Little Divine Intervention) Saves The Day**

"Kami-nii-sama!" Elsie beat her fists uselessly against Keima's chest. "Why would you do such a terrible thing?"

"You sent them off to kill the Beast!" Haqua remarked. "The phrase 'if at first you don't succeed, destroy all evidence that you tried' springs to mind." Her attempt at a joke fell flat in the serious atmosphere, and her cheeks turned scarlet. "It won't work!" she blustered defensively. "Even if these men do manage to kill the Beast, it won't let us capture the loose soul. If that worked, us Spirit Hunters would have been doing it from the start."

Calmly, Keima reprimanded, "You should have more faith in the God of Conquest."

"I can't help it when you always look like you don't have a clue what you're doing!" she yelled back, flustered.

"Perhaps, but you wouldn't have come to Elsie and I for help if you didn't think we were the ones for the job."

Haqua's response was to whack him on the head with her scythe. "...Idiot," she muttered, folding her arms haughtily.

"Psychopath," he scowled back.

The purple-haired demon was about to give him back an angry retort when the sound of fists beating against wood turned their attention back to the matter at hand. From the entrance to the underground cellar, Belle's voice emerged weakly. "Please! Someone, help us! Anyone? Help!"

Their job was not yet done. "Elsie!" Keima ordered, once more business-like and efficient. "Open the hatch for me."

With a nod, the demon faithfully crouched down next to the wooden doors set into the ground and tried to pull them open, to no avail. Rolling her eyes, Haqua hissed, "Use your hagoromo, you idiot!"

"Right!" By magically shaping the cloth into a key, Elsie was able to finally unlock the doors. Keima came up to stand before them as the demon girl moved off to one side to heave them open for him.

Belle and her father were stood in one corner of the underground workshop, and both looked up as he entered. Keima was a dark silhouette against the flickering firelight cast by the torches around the village; dominant and cold, hostile and inhuman. He took a slow, deliberate step down the stairs into the cellar, and Belle and her father took a step backwards away from him. For a moment, it almost looked like the shifting shadows were his unearthly wings.

Still, in spite of this, Belle seemed determined to put on a show of bravery. She spoke up against this great and terrible man. "How could you do such a thing? You're just as evil as Gaston! They're going to kill the Beast because of you!"

"No," Keima corrected harshly. "The Beast is going to die because of _you_."

Belle shrunk backwards into the corner once more. "No... why would you say that? I would never do anything to hurt him, you know that!"

Keima was cruel and unforgiving. "You left him."

"I had to! My father-"

"Would have survived for another day without you."

"He was sick-"

"You were scared," Keima overrode her with dark certainty.

"I-"

"You couldn't stand it." He advanced slowly down the steps, an apparition of judgement in the night. "You, who have always thought that you were destined to find adventure, to accomplish great things; you, who have always wanted to win the heart of your very own Prince Charming - to find yourself falling in love with something even less than human, no, you couldn't stand it!"

"That's not true-" Belle was shaking her head, silver tears glistening on her cheeks.

"You were scared – too scared to commit to a life with the Beast; too scared to tell him how you felt or how much he meant to you, in case telling him would stop you from ever going back to your previous life! You were too much of a coward to admit it, so you couldn't stand to be around him any more. You couldn't tell him, but you couldn't live with the guilt of how much you were going to hurt him by not telling him. So you took the coward's way out. You ran away."

"I- I never meant- I never-"

"He let you go because he loved you! He let you go and start again, even though he knew that he was giving up his last chance at happiness for you! You left in your selfishness; he is a Beast, and yet he has shown more kindness and humanity than you! These are the consequences of your actions, Belle!"

For a long time, no one said anything. Keima's piercing words hung in the silence. The shamed heroine could not meet his gaze, her eyes turned down towards the shadow-littered floor.

Then, so quietly that the two watching demons weren't even aware she had spoken at first, Belle whispered to Keima, "Is there anything I can do? Please, tell me. I'll do anything to save him. I won't let him die alone in despair."

"I have come to give you one last chance," Keima told her. "You must go to him. It's not too late to make this right. There is still time to stop Gaston."

"Then I must go," Belle conceded, straightening up.

Her father grabbed her hand. "Belle-"

She gave the old man a sad smile. "This is my fault. I must do what I can to make it right."

Reluctantly, he released her. "Please, be careful."

"I'll come back. I promise."

Keima stood aside to let Belle leave the cellar. As she passed, she whispered so quietly that only he could hear, "Thank you." He nodded once. Then she mounted her horse and rode off after the mob without once looking back.

The atmosphere disappeared with the departing heroine. Keima let out a sigh of relief. Haqua turned to him, arms folded. "Katsuragi-"

"No time," he interrupted. "The loose soul is not yet in our custody. Elsie!"

"Right!" The demon leapt into the air, soaring off towards the prince's castle with detention jar in hand. Keima followed her along the ground, with Haqua floating at his side as his guide through the forest. Had this have been a normal day, he would undoubtedly have complained about the amount of running this their quest had involved - but this was the end of a conquest, and Keima was once more possessed with divine vigour.

By the time they arrived at the castle, the battle was almost over. They passed most of the mob running back to the village, chased away by the castle's strange inhabitants. Amidst the moonlit battlements, the Beast and the man called Gaston grappled with each other, both trying to gain a more stable foothold on the roof. As the three onlookers watched with baited breath, the Beast gained the upper hand and beat Gaston backwards – just as the brute of a man drew his shining silver dagger and plunged it into the Beast's side.

Elsie screamed, "No!" But Keima grabbed her hand, dragging her back down to the ground as she tried to fly off to intervene.

"Wait!" he growled. A kind of hopeless despair settled over the scene. They watched as Gaston slipped and fell off the roof and out of sight – but it was too little, too late.

But then Bella was there, taking his clawed hand in her own, holding him in the blazing moonlight, promising never to leave him again – and even though they were far too far away to hear anything that was going on, Haqua and Elsie would both later swear that they heard Belle give that most powerful of confessions: "I love you."

The scene that unfurled was like nothing any of them had ever witnessed. At once the sky was filled with a hundred shooting stars, cascading down to earth and across the night sky with all the sparkling colours of the rainbow. It seemed like a beautiful rosy dawn had broken over the castle. And the Beast himself outshone them all, cloaked in golden starlight, blazing like a miniature sun as the curse was undone by the most powerful of emotions.

The light gathered around him and shot up into the sky, and the Beast was no longer a beast but a handsome prince, human once more. After ten years of dominance, the loose soul had finally been defeated. "Elsie, now!" Keima instructed, and the demon darted off into the sky, easily capturing the now-powerless loose soul.

As Belle and her prince embraced on the balcony, Elsie returned proudly to the others. "Got it!" she chirped, the soul which had been evading the Spirit Hunters for years now safely confined inside the tiny jar atop her palm.

Keima smiled. "Good job, Elsie," he praised, causing his demon partner to beam.

"Hey!" Haqua objected. "Don't I get any recognition?"

Frowning, Keima told her distantly, "You didn't do anything useful."

For this, he received another blow to the head. "How rude," Haqua huffed, as Keima clutched his head and moaned. "Maybe if you apologize to me, I'll let you shake my hand."

"Whatever," Keima muttered, but he grinned despite himself. "We're done here. Let's go home."

* * *

The moment the three of them touched down outside his house, Keima disappeared back into his room. The two demons, still stood outside on the porch, exchanged glances. No one on earth would be able to stop him from trying to cram a whole weekend of gaming into the few hours he had left. Haqua just sighed, shaking her head in frustration.

Elsie handed over the jar containing the loose soul. "Thanks," Haqua said. "I guess I'd better write up the report for this, then."

"I can't believe we managed to catch it. Kami-nii-sama is so amazing!"

Haqua smiled reluctantly. "Take care of him, Elsie."

"Of course!"

"No one else could have done what he accomplished. Don't go after any loose souls for a while. Let Katsuragi have a break." As Elsie looked at her curiously, Haqua just grinned, jumping backwards into the air. "That will give me a chance to get ahead of you in capturing loose souls!"

"Haqua!" Elsie yelled, but she was grinning too.

Haqua called back over her shoulder, "See you round, Elsie!"

"Goodbye, Haqua!" Elsie shouted back, waving vigorously as her friend disappeared off into the sky.

* * *

Haqua was still smiling long after she had left the Katsuragi household behind. Try as she might, she knew she would never understand Keima. He claimed that he detested the real world, yet when he was forced to interact with it, he was capable of achieving incredible things. Although he acted like he didn't care and he never seemed to pay attention, he gave every conquest his all.

Perhaps being forced to hunt loose souls was good for him. Perhaps Belle and the Beast hadn't been the only ones to have found some measure of happiness because of Keima – whether he cared or not, and whether it was intentional or not, there were a lot of people who had gained self-confidence or come to understand themselves through his intervention in pursuit of loose souls.

At first, she hadn't understood why he had been so harsh to Belle. They all knew that she had strong feelings for the Beast, and surely if Keima had just told her how important it was that she broke the spell that night, she would have gone straight back to the castle. Encouraging the mob to march on the castle and threatening Belle like he had had seemed initially to be unnecessarily cruel.

Yet, the more she thought about it, the more she began to untangle what he had been thinking. Some part of him had wanted Belle to understand why what she had done was wrong. Whether consciously or not, he had wanted to ensure that she wouldn't make that mistake again, and she had become a better person from learning from her mistakes.

Although she would never admit it to anyone other than herself, Haqua was fond of Keima. She wanted to help him, and for some inexplicable reason, throwing challenges at him seemed to be able to do that. Perhaps it was because every time he accidentally changed someone's life for the better, it seemed to bring him gradually closer to the real world. Perhaps it was because every time he saved someone from the emptiness of their hearts, he became a little less of a god, and a little more of a man.

Regardless of the reason, Haqua knew that she and Elsie would stand by him until every loose soul had been captured, and their world – and maybe, just maybe, even Keima himself – had been saved.


End file.
